Pages

Monday, 3 November 2014

Review: Laura Quigley - Spirit and the Magic Horsebox

Beware! Spoiler!

Horseboxes are such cumbersome things: even your modern day
gleaming Oakley is a lumbering beast. I do have a little difficulty imagining
one whisking through time, but I suppose the idea’s no more preposterous than a
police box would have been in the 1960s, whisking Dr Who through time and
space. But anyway, whisk you through time and space is exactly what this
horsebox does. I am, as you will probably have gathered from the Dr Who
reference, partial to time travel, and I’m also partial to historical novels,
so this once I was over my reaction to the title, this book was right up my
street.

The book’s two main characters are those stalwarts of 21st
century pony fiction: the child without a full complement of parents. Megan has
moved to the country, and a flat at the farm where Josh lives with his
grandmother. There used to be horses at the farm, but they were all sold when
Josh’s parents were killed. Bored one day, Josh and Megan investigate one of
the barns they’re not supposed to go into, and find an old horsebox. With a
horse in it: at least they can hear, plain as plain, the sounds of a horse. Except
when they finally fight their way through the mess of stuff in the barn, the
horsebox is empty. And when they investigate the cab, they inadvertently start
the horsebox, and find themselves back in Cromwell-era England. There they get
involved with highwayman Tom Faggus, and his amazing horse, Winnie.

The horsebox ties the story together as Megan and Josh whisk backwards
and forwards between the modern day and Cromwellian, and later Arthurian,
England. Besides the general difficulties attendant on journeying back to a
Britain beset with war (Arthur) and post-Civil War problems (Cromwell), the duo
also have to contend with the Eberdonn, a mysterious race of people who
certainly don’t have humanity’s best interests at heart. For me, the historical
stuff would have been enough on its own: there’s more than enough meat in the
two periods Laura Quigley’s chosen to make a thoroughly interesting plot. In
fact, just one historical era would have been enough for me. Tom Faggus and his
doings, contrasted with the 21st century without the detour into
Arthuriana would have been quite enough. However, for an audience who don’t get
as much history as they used to at school, it’s perhaps not a bad thing to get
acquainted with a bit more, even if Arthur lends more fantastic glamour to the
plot than solid historical fact.

You might be wondering what the Spirit of the title has to
do with anything, and you do have to
wait quite a while until he makes a meaningful appearance. I think that the
author inherited the basic plot and title from another author, because if Laura
Quigley had been left to her own devices, I suspect Spirit wouldn’t have
appeared at all. That said, the author juggles
her multiple plot lines well, and I was certainly keen to find out what happens
next. The historical detail rings true, and Josh and Megan are well enough
drawn to provide the central focus to the story, although the dialogue is
occasionally rather stilted. Laura Quigley’s good at the little details of
teenage angst: Megan’s obsessive checking of her phone to see if anyone’s been
in touch rings lots of bells. To her old friends, she’s out of sight and out of
mind. Josh is well done too, and I particularly enjoyed his attempts to find 17th
century veterinary care for the horse he rescues.

For the die-hard pony fan, I expect that this book will not
have enough pony in it. It’s fairer to say it’s a time travel adventure in
which horses play a part: they’re certainly not the centre of the adventure,
and they are written in an oddly arms-length fashion: I get the feeling the
horses are not the author’s main interest. That said, there was one particular
episode that took me aback. Josh reads up about the highwayman Tom Faggus , and
finds out he was hanged, and his horse, Winnie,
was killed. Josh immediately decides he must go back and rescue the
horse. Ah, I thought. What about Tom? Josh says, a couple of pages later:

“But he just had to save Winnie. Of course they would try to
save Tom too, maybe, if they could, but Winnie, well she was just an innocent
horse, wasn’t she? She certainly didn’t deserve to be shot.”

I’m not sure I’m happy going too far down the animals are
more worthy than humans of being saved route. Tom Faggus is portrayed in the
book as a thoroughly good sort, so to write him off completely just because he
doesn’t happen to be an animal jarred with me. I have to say (and this is the
spoiler bit) that when it comes to it, Tom does alright.

I do have quibbles with this book, but I came down firmly on
the side of enjoying it. Spirit and the
Magic Horsebox is an exciting read: it’s a promising start to the series.

~ 0 ~

Spirit and the Magic Horsebox – Laura Quigley

Forelock Books, 2014, £9.99

Age of main characters: John - 14, Megan - 13
Themes: time travel, war, some witchcraft